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JIllian Lauren

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Tag Archives: Sierra Sky

I’m old school. I believe that when you’re schlepping your tushie halfway across the European continent, you should do it in a pair of Birkenstocks. So I took this pair on their virgin voyage today in preparation for tomorrow’s journey. You fashionistas out there will be happy to know that I’m at least foregoing the backpack.

I leave tomorrow for a press tour that will take me to Amsterdam, Antwerp, Vienna, Bratislava and Hamburg and I’m having wildly mixed emotions about it. I’m a girl with a nomadic soul and I love a good adventure, but I’ve never had to leave my heart behind before now. I know that T-Bone will have an amazing time with daddy and I’m not worried about them. But every time I think about it, I have a feeling like I’ve been kicked in the gut.

I’ve had a fun couple of weeks leading up to this, though. I did my final L.A. area Some Girls readings and I definitely went out in style.

In Laguna Beach, I had a reunion with Sierra Sky and Shawna Kenney, both of whom attended the writing workshop in which I first dipped my toes into autobiographical material. They’re soul sisters and it felt like coming full circle to be together again. Shawna and Cara Bruce were there with their anthology,Robot Hearts: True and Twisted Tales of Seeking Love in the Digital Age, and I shared the night with a number of talented contributors.

The 24 Hour Literary Marathon at The Writer’s Junction was an unusual and cool event in a really great building that acts as an affordable shared workspace for writers. The Writer’s Junction is described on their website as a place “where you can work in splendid isolation, within a supportive community.” If they open a Writer’s Junction on the East Side, I’ll be their first member.

Erin Tavin and Steffie Nelson’s Little Birds #3 at Tavin Boutique in Echo Park was also a magical night. Just look at the place. It was truly a treat to meet the very talented and lovely Janelle Brown. Plus, I wound up buying some fantastic gypsy dresses. How many reading venues send you home with a new wardrobe?

Last night was my swan song at Vermin on the Mount. I felt kind of sad and strange afterwards, maybe because of the way the way that endings never feel like endings. Probably because they usually aren’t.

So that’s all the latest memoir news. Don’t know how much time I’ll have to blog while I’m in Europe, but I’ll certainly see you on the other side with more pictures than you care to see.

I had better hop off now because Scott and I have about four minutes in between him returning from his tour and me leaving for mine. And not to be crude, but nothing says “I want some action” quite like a new pair of Birkenstocks. Men go crazy for ’em.

READER'S GUIDE

I Tell Stories

Family Roots December 9, 2014
A woman finds an unexpected new family when she adopts a son, a bad soldier learns to write from personal loss, and a man is working at a nuclear power plant when disaster strikes.http://themoth.org/posts/episodes/1425

Jillian Lauren is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem and the novel, Pretty, both published by Plume/Penguin. Some Girls has been translated into seventeen different languages. Her next memoir, Everything You Ever Wanted, is coming out from Plume in 2014.

Jillian has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Magazine and Salon.com among others and has been anthologized widely, including in The Moth Anthology, True Tales of Lust and Love and Best of Babble Blogs.

She has performed at spoken word and storytelling events across the country, including being a regular on The Moth mainstage, and has been interviewed on such television programs as The View, Good Morning America and Howard Stern.

She is a popular and sometimes controversial blogger at MSNBC, The Huffington Post and Jillianlauren.com, which was named a Top 100 Mom Blog of 2012 by Babble Magazine.

Jillian is married to Weezer bass player Scott Shriner. They live in Los Angeles with their two sons.